This story strikes me as (at least partly) survivorship bias. It's great that they were able to acquire 600 paid customers without advertizing their product on blogs, and ignoring their competitors. I don't have hard numbers to back me up, but I doubt that this is a successful strategy in general.
This story is a data point that proves that it's possible, not that this gives you a better (or even good) chance at succeeding. Hell, I would wager that greater exposure would have led to much higher sales.
Do you think there's a philosophical difference that the author did here? They specifically write "Don’t hurry. It’s not a startup rushing to an exit.".
The lack of pressure and the slow cultivation was something that struck me in this article, as opposed to the stereotypical rush of the startup lifecycle.
Ignoring competitors is generally a good strategy as a early stage team, specially in immature markets. If you focus too much on what the competition is doing you tend to end up with a local maximum otherwise.
I fail to understand the point of your post. The author was simply sharing his personal experience on what appears to be launching his first paid app and how it allowed him to stop freelancing thanks to the profit. It isn't a "they", it's a he.
It all depends on what you definition of success is. If your definition is creating a high-growth technically innovative business (what many would say a tech startup is), then this for sure isn't a good way to achieve success. If your definition is creating on the side a sustainable business based on tech (which other people would also define as "startup"), then this advice is generally very good.
> "You don’t have to care about competitors. It’s a waste of time. Because you know where to go. You can ignore even if they stole features your product has. Because you are the person who most understands your product, how it works and why it works."
I enjoyed this article, but this bit I'm not entirely convinced by. The saying does go that competition leads to innovation. Instagram Stories were a great business move, but if they hadn't paid attention to Snapchat, would they have come up with it?
I understand that this article was written about a niche product, but I think it still applies.
On the other hand, I really like the bit about the communication with your customer-base. In game development particular, but also in all sorts of software I use, I see so many developers who don't interact with customers or improve their product based on feedback.
Customer feedback for users that aren't enterprise has to be the ultimate form of support. If I can provide the same service as a competitor to you, but I'll listen to your feedback, respond to it, and potentially act on it, I think I have a big advantage.
> if they hadn't paid attention to Snapchat, would they have come up with it?
There's a big difference between large established players and new startups. Established players can't just grow, they need to protect what they have so that their base doesn't drop out from underneath them. New startups are default-dead and don't have anything to protect yet.
Furthermore: oftentimes, big players offer customers a boatload of features, and most customers don't use nearly all of those features. If you mindlessly copy features, then you aren't paying attention to whether those are the features your small but developing customer base actually wants. The only way to know what features your customers actually care about is to talk to your customers.
Google MUST be worried for Apple. Because them are figthing for big amount of users.
But when you are solo, or a small team, and your goal/real chance is have a small number of customers, what other do is close to irrelevant.
You will find a lot of competition and your idea will be already in the open for long time. But that is not important. As long you care for your small(ish) customer base you will be ok.
Is like sell hamburgers in the street. The street seller not need to worry at all with Mc-Donald. IF have a tasty product and can provide a better service, it will be ok
Competition is a huge distraction because the market is usually big enough for both companies. Ie customer isn’t looking for feature comparison at this point, but for the best service.
And you can provide that only if you’re focused on present customers.
Took me a very long time to understand this ... PG mentions this as a big failure mode :-/
The way I have always thought of things was along the line of - I can spend all my time worrying about my competition, my competition spends all their time worrying about me, and neither gets anything done.
So my philosophy is to be aware of the competition but listen to my customers and the industry.
Instagram stories - examples like this are where I struggle. At least they copied it fairly well if that's the case :)
If you have 500 customers and your competitor has 500 customers. You are in a market of over 10,000 potential users.
What do you do? go after your competitor's 500 customers, many of which are only going to consider switching if their product lets them down or go after the other 10,000 potential customers that don't use either product?
The point is people spend huge amounts of time and energy trying to second guess their competitors and copy them when they should be listening to customers.
The stories features was also stolen based on data that regular competitors would not have. Facebook used Onavo VPN data from users to see how features affect usage of Snapchat. They can also see which apps are very viral or sticky, which is why they bought Whatsapp for $19B.
I think this part is about focus. Sure, it may pay off to watch your competition but what’s the price for it? Ignoring other things? I interpret it as: most of the times just do what you wanted to do and ignore your competition
I took it to mean: don't blindly copy the competition's features, or be intimidated by seemingly complex features they have. Focus on your own users and make them happy.
I don't think they're saying "You don't have to care about your competitors." I think they're saying, "You don't have to care about your competitors [to attract the first 500 paid users for your SaaS]."
Yeah, I enjoyed the article, but this isn't for anyone looking to build a serious business. The advice works for someone looking for a similar result (a sustainable income), but I wouldn't want to apply this knowledge if you want a business that makes you even well-off, if not rich.
Spending time on user forums is a poor use of a developer-founder's time. You're better off adding features and focusing on promotion and offloading the rest to a cheap support guy
Amen to this... "You will get many ups and downs on your way — A new feature might have a significant bug you haven’t noticed and it would cause some customers to quit. I recently experienced that but I would think it was a necessary process to make the app more reliable. You are not perfect. So is your product. Finish your work and see how it goes. Don’t be afraid."
Great article. I run a small SaaS on the side that’s about this size and a lot of these points resonate with me. A few thoughts:
1. 100% agree with ignoring competitors unless you’re in a field with heavy network effects. Most niches can have many successful companies, and worrying about your competition will add a lot of stress and encourage you to build things your users don’t care much about. Listen to your customers!
2. Churn is probably low partly because the pricing is low. I charge 10x - 20x this much and my post-trial churn is more like 10% (working on reducing). People are a lot more motivated to cancel if it’s costing them $1000 per year.
3. I should really, really do the support forum thing.
4. Strongly disagree on roadmaps. There are much better ways to make people feel like the service is alive and maintained enough to feel comfortable signing up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve added unnecessary guilt and stress to my life by promising some future feature to users and then priorities or timing changed. Stupid to put yourself in a box like that for no reason.
I've built more than a couple of product prototypes equivalent to the size of this app and ended up with the questions "what is the USP other than cheaper pricing? what is your marketing budget?" - And was discouraged to a point where I never did launch the product to acquire paid users. And did launch it for free and has decent number of users. But it is not fun working on a product that does not pay.
This is so fresh and encouraging advice here. Even if it was paying me just half of my freelance pay for a decent period - I would call it a success.
I hope the author sees this as "good feedback".. My notes taking system is terrible (lots of TXT files on my desktop) :/ Its terrible and only slightly better than NOT having a system at all. So I downloaded your app(congrats looks very polished) but maybe I just had too many coffees but I couldn't figure out how to make a new note within 30 seconds or 15 clicks :S. Maybe I'm just dumb?
I would put first and foremost how to make a note the very very first thing(and only) thing when I open the app.
I don't want to see ALL the apps features.. I just want to first see how the ONE THING i need this app todo. Make a note :)
Just my 2cents ! Congrats again on having a successful app
Try notepad++ or other workspace-supporting software if you already have such installed. It doesn't have to be primarily aimed at note-taking to work. This method doesn't help with sync, multi-device, etc tho.
I love the enthusiasm of the founder. It’s so refreshing and motivating. I wish him further success and hope to read another post when he hits $10000 MRR.
This reminded me a lot of how DHH described their thinking (paraphrasing A LOT): other people don't have to have a bad product for yours to be successful. Good article!
I'm refreshingly surprised that in 2018 it is still possible to make money with a subscription-based Markdown editor. Why would I ever shell out 60 bucks a year if I can pick one of the plethoras of good editors (free or one-time purchase, I use iaWriter for example) and then just sync for free using Dropbox or whatever (and have it encrypted on top of that if I want)? I paid ~30 and I own the editor and have control over my data.
And then there's already established competition, e.g Ulysses.
Kudos on the success, it can only be good news for anyone trying to run a saas.
I think I'm too cynical to do these kinds of side businesses... I look at this and am confused why anyone is paying for it. I often find it hard to step away from what I would do compared to what others will do.
I'm one of those 500 paid users (renewed my yearly subscription a few days ago), so here's my arguing why:
- It's arguably the only Markdown editor dedicated to note keeping that looks even remotely modern on Ubuntu.
- Its mobile support is decent and gets the job done.
- The developer is very responsive. I can't contribute to the code directly, but my name has appeared on a changelog multiple times because I suggested features / reported problems. Unlike an open source project, this one has a person dedicated to it full time whose goal is to keep me happy as a subscriber. Issues I raise don't tend to be open for months or years with no end, they tend to be fixed within a month or so.
- Its plugins are easy to install. Similarly to Atom, I'm only "ipm install <plugin>" away from having a plugin.
- I find GTD features (notebooks, tags, to-do lists) to be nice to have, even though I don't rely on them extensively.
- I can create a public link for a note and share it with whoever.
- In case shit hits the fan, you can back up the data to a local folder and sync it using whatever.
If I was relying on macOS or Windows, I would have probably found something else.
Standard Notes, as the only decent competitor, is out of the question for me since I would have to use a third-party cloud instead of my own Nextcloud install for the backups.
Main con I could think of: I manually have to download deb packages with every update like I'm some sort of a Windows user.
People pay also for convenience. Also, if you are really busy making $$$ a month then there is no problem to pay 5$ a month for something that is saving you some time, some stress and so on. I was thinking the same as you...
Well what’s the alternative to taking good notes for a developer? Markdown on git? You still have to pay for github if you want it to be private and you have the hassle of setting it up. $5/month is irrelevant if you use it a couple of times a day
On the product: this seems like SimpleNote except that it is actually being developed with features. I have been happy enough with SimpleNote for over a year now, but trying this out now as an upgrade.
For both of these I like that its just markdown files that I can export if I decide to use something else.
Edit: there is a plugin for vim keybindings, and a solarized light theme. I am sold!
Neat article, and thanks for sharing. My thoughs as follows:
1) I don't want to pay in perpetuity for the software you have built. It's unfair. (yes, even if you're a single developer and probably a very nice guy).
2) I'm ok to pay for cloud storage, but I want to be able to opt-in and opt-out whenever I want.
Almost all software is a subscription now, and this is ruining a lot of things IMHO.
>You don’t have to care about competitors. It’s a waste of time. Because you know where to go.
I agree with this statement,because as a small developer if you compare you and your product with big companies you will get lost in a short span of time."Good customer support will differentiate you from the big players" is one more great point in your article.
Inkdrop looks seriously good. I may consider switching from my tiddlywiki+orgmode setup (it's painful, but haven't found anything better that is cross-platform). My only concern is if Inkdrop were to shut down in the future. Does it support exporting my data?
[+] [-] noname120|7 years ago|reply
This story is a data point that proves that it's possible, not that this gives you a better (or even good) chance at succeeding. Hell, I would wager that greater exposure would have led to much higher sales.
[+] [-] bszupnick|7 years ago|reply
The lack of pressure and the slow cultivation was something that struck me in this article, as opposed to the stereotypical rush of the startup lifecycle.
[+] [-] rock_hard|7 years ago|reply
Agree on your point about ads though
[+] [-] tomnipotent|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danmaz74|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _kxbd|7 years ago|reply
I enjoyed this article, but this bit I'm not entirely convinced by. The saying does go that competition leads to innovation. Instagram Stories were a great business move, but if they hadn't paid attention to Snapchat, would they have come up with it?
I understand that this article was written about a niche product, but I think it still applies.
On the other hand, I really like the bit about the communication with your customer-base. In game development particular, but also in all sorts of software I use, I see so many developers who don't interact with customers or improve their product based on feedback.
Customer feedback for users that aren't enterprise has to be the ultimate form of support. If I can provide the same service as a competitor to you, but I'll listen to your feedback, respond to it, and potentially act on it, I think I have a big advantage.
[+] [-] solatic|7 years ago|reply
There's a big difference between large established players and new startups. Established players can't just grow, they need to protect what they have so that their base doesn't drop out from underneath them. New startups are default-dead and don't have anything to protect yet.
Furthermore: oftentimes, big players offer customers a boatload of features, and most customers don't use nearly all of those features. If you mindlessly copy features, then you aren't paying attention to whether those are the features your small but developing customer base actually wants. The only way to know what features your customers actually care about is to talk to your customers.
[+] [-] xmly|7 years ago|reply
Follow them and know what they are doing. But do not adjust your plan easily for just what your competitors are doing.
[+] [-] jakobegger|7 years ago|reply
For my app, I have hundreds of feature requests, and for 95% of them all I can say is, that's a nice idea, but I don't have time to do it.
For the remaining 5% it'll take me a year or longer to implement them.
For customers this looks like I'm unresponsive.
When I started out, I often added features in a few days, and customers were thrilled, but that low-hanging fruit is mostly gone now.
[+] [-] mamcx|7 years ago|reply
Google MUST be worried for Apple. Because them are figthing for big amount of users.
But when you are solo, or a small team, and your goal/real chance is have a small number of customers, what other do is close to irrelevant.
You will find a lot of competition and your idea will be already in the open for long time. But that is not important. As long you care for your small(ish) customer base you will be ok.
Is like sell hamburgers in the street. The street seller not need to worry at all with Mc-Donald. IF have a tasty product and can provide a better service, it will be ok
[+] [-] keeptrying|7 years ago|reply
And you can provide that only if you’re focused on present customers.
Took me a very long time to understand this ... PG mentions this as a big failure mode :-/
[+] [-] winrid|7 years ago|reply
So my philosophy is to be aware of the competition but listen to my customers and the industry.
Instagram stories - examples like this are where I struggle. At least they copied it fairly well if that's the case :)
[+] [-] rythie|7 years ago|reply
What do you do? go after your competitor's 500 customers, many of which are only going to consider switching if their product lets them down or go after the other 10,000 potential customers that don't use either product?
[+] [-] grey-area|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bdcravens|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasonwen|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baxtr|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mparr4|7 years ago|reply
Maybe "ignore competitors" is the former.
Example: "carbs are bad" is directionaly true but not universally so (at least I would posit it is directionaly true for the modern American diet)
[+] [-] enraged_camel|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _pmf_|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] allenleee|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] diminoten|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] puranjay|7 years ago|reply
Spending time on user forums is a poor use of a developer-founder's time. You're better off adding features and focusing on promotion and offloading the rest to a cheap support guy
[+] [-] bttf|7 years ago|reply
>We would like to provide good, quick and warm user support. If we got a lot of users, we won't be able to support them all.
Frankly admitting that they want to pace user growth for better quality service is both brutally honest, and enticing.
I hope more bootstrapped SaaS companies achieve this equilibrium where pricing is premium, growth is paced, and quality is high.
[+] [-] cmmartin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryanwaggoner|7 years ago|reply
1. 100% agree with ignoring competitors unless you’re in a field with heavy network effects. Most niches can have many successful companies, and worrying about your competition will add a lot of stress and encourage you to build things your users don’t care much about. Listen to your customers!
2. Churn is probably low partly because the pricing is low. I charge 10x - 20x this much and my post-trial churn is more like 10% (working on reducing). People are a lot more motivated to cancel if it’s costing them $1000 per year.
3. I should really, really do the support forum thing.
4. Strongly disagree on roadmaps. There are much better ways to make people feel like the service is alive and maintained enough to feel comfortable signing up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve added unnecessary guilt and stress to my life by promising some future feature to users and then priorities or timing changed. Stupid to put yourself in a box like that for no reason.
[+] [-] smdz|7 years ago|reply
I've built more than a couple of product prototypes equivalent to the size of this app and ended up with the questions "what is the USP other than cheaper pricing? what is your marketing budget?" - And was discouraged to a point where I never did launch the product to acquire paid users. And did launch it for free and has decent number of users. But it is not fun working on a product that does not pay.
This is so fresh and encouraging advice here. Even if it was paying me just half of my freelance pay for a decent period - I would call it a success.
[+] [-] rawoke083600|7 years ago|reply
I would put first and foremost how to make a note the very very first thing(and only) thing when I open the app.
I don't want to see ALL the apps features.. I just want to first see how the ONE THING i need this app todo. Make a note :)
Just my 2cents ! Congrats again on having a successful app
[+] [-] efreak|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brucen|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] briandear|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joncrane|7 years ago|reply
Many of the tidbits are the exact opposite of advice for startups that are trying to maximize value.
[+] [-] sdrothrock|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] craftzdog|7 years ago|reply
Cheers
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] agentPrefect|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amorphous|7 years ago|reply
I'm refreshingly surprised that in 2018 it is still possible to make money with a subscription-based Markdown editor. Why would I ever shell out 60 bucks a year if I can pick one of the plethoras of good editors (free or one-time purchase, I use iaWriter for example) and then just sync for free using Dropbox or whatever (and have it encrypted on top of that if I want)? I paid ~30 and I own the editor and have control over my data.
And then there's already established competition, e.g Ulysses.
Kudos on the success, it can only be good news for anyone trying to run a saas.
[+] [-] keithnz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] r3bl|7 years ago|reply
- It's arguably the only Markdown editor dedicated to note keeping that looks even remotely modern on Ubuntu.
- Its mobile support is decent and gets the job done.
- The developer is very responsive. I can't contribute to the code directly, but my name has appeared on a changelog multiple times because I suggested features / reported problems. Unlike an open source project, this one has a person dedicated to it full time whose goal is to keep me happy as a subscriber. Issues I raise don't tend to be open for months or years with no end, they tend to be fixed within a month or so.
- Its plugins are easy to install. Similarly to Atom, I'm only "ipm install <plugin>" away from having a plugin.
- I find GTD features (notebooks, tags, to-do lists) to be nice to have, even though I don't rely on them extensively.
- I can create a public link for a note and share it with whoever.
- In case shit hits the fan, you can back up the data to a local folder and sync it using whatever.
If I was relying on macOS or Windows, I would have probably found something else.
Standard Notes, as the only decent competitor, is out of the question for me since I would have to use a third-party cloud instead of my own Nextcloud install for the backups.
Main con I could think of: I manually have to download deb packages with every update like I'm some sort of a Windows user.
In fact, here's a note I've created a year ago comparing the various options that were at my disposal a year ago when I was making this decision: https://community.inkdrop.info/note/f607a6970af9e4b40795ec5b...
[+] [-] GoToRO|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] albertgoeswoof|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gregwebs|7 years ago|reply
For both of these I like that its just markdown files that I can export if I decide to use something else.
Edit: there is a plugin for vim keybindings, and a solarized light theme. I am sold!
[+] [-] enraged_camel|7 years ago|reply
* When the next version will be released (specific date, not just bullshit stuff like "Q1 2019") * What new features it will have
If I can't find anything like this, I'm less likely to sign up.
[+] [-] simonebrunozzi|7 years ago|reply
1) I don't want to pay in perpetuity for the software you have built. It's unfair. (yes, even if you're a single developer and probably a very nice guy).
2) I'm ok to pay for cloud storage, but I want to be able to opt-in and opt-out whenever I want.
Almost all software is a subscription now, and this is ruining a lot of things IMHO.
[+] [-] iliketosleep|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ganeshkumar_sr|7 years ago|reply
I agree with this statement,because as a small developer if you compare you and your product with big companies you will get lost in a short span of time."Good customer support will differentiate you from the big players" is one more great point in your article.
[+] [-] GoToRO|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] craftzdog|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nvarsj|7 years ago|reply